Although the "Rugged Faith" program may look intricate and detailed in the photos it really contains very simple concepts that pull it all together. First the songs. While most of what we do in the puppet ministry stays within the genre of Christian music I don't want you to be afraid to venture into other genres. Little Dogs on the Prairie is a Christian kid's choir musical. Michael Martin Murphy is a country western singer. Larry Verne is from the 60's. Riders in the Sky is a country western group and well... Ray Stevens is a comedy artist that can have some questionable pieces. So tread carefully with some but trust your judgment and God's leading. The horse puppets are simple stick horses still on the stick to allow one puppeteer to operate both the horse and the puppet. The wagon is made of two pieces of white foam core hinged in the middle to allow the prop to fold up for transport. Since it is white, only a black marker was needed to add the details. The pots and pans hanging from the wagon are kid's toys purchased at a second hand store as were the western and blue cavalry shirts. The rod arm puppet playing the guitar has his hands rubber banded and velcroed to the guitar while the guitar is velcroed to his shirt. Oriental trading is a wonderful place to purchase all kinds of hats for puppets. The fenceposts are mailing tubes with painted wood grain, pony tail holder mouths on pull strings and black yarn for fencing. Most of the chickens were plush animals either transformed with a hand entry or on a wooden dowel for a hand hold. The puppet with legs is just a half-body puppet with legs velcroed to her lower body. His Hands Puppets sells these that can be attached to any puppet you might already own or since the legs are covered with jeans it doesn't really matter what it looks like from the inside and you could make these yourself. The more difficult items were the rear-ends of the cattle with tails that swished and the human-hand western shirt all made by His Hands Puppets. Of course, arranging all the songs in an order that flows along a story line as well as for the mobility and position of the puppeteers is always a time consuming task for me. If you are interested in a full list of the order of songs and a grid of puppeteer assignments for this program just let me know. 

Happy Trails to You!